Frequently, broadband systems transmit television signals and programs to subscribers of a conditional access system. Broadband systems, such as cable and satellite television systems, typically include a headend for receiving programming and/or data from various sources and redistributing the programming and other data through a distribution system to subscribers. The headend receives programming signals from a variety of sources, combines the programming signals from the various sources, and transmits the combined signals through the distribution system to subscriber equipment. The distribution system can include a variety of media, such as coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, and satellite links among others. In a subscriber television system, the subscriber equipment, which receives the signals from the headend, can include, among others, a cable-ready television, a cable-ready video cassette recorder (VCR), or a client-receiver that is connected to a television, computer, or other display device.
The headend uses modulators to control the streams of data into the distribution system. Increasingly, the headend is receiving and transmitting programming in a digital format, for example, Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) format, instead of an analog format. Transmitting programs in MPEG format is advantageous because multiple digitized programs can be combined and transmitted in, for example, 6 MHz of bandwidth, which is the same amount of bandwidth that is required to transmit a single analog channel or program, and in comparison to analog programs, MPEG or digitized programs provide a cleaner and sharper image and sound.
Content owners of programs are not particularly concerned about subscribers of a conditional access system using their VCRs to make a recording of a program because, among other things, the quality of the VCR recorded program does not match the quality of a legitimate commercial analog recording of the program, and because of difficulties associated making and distributing bootleg copies of a VCR recorded program. However, content owners are concerned about subscribers of a conditional access system recording digitized programs because, among other things, digitized programs can be transmitted and recorded virtually error-free and digitized programs can be easily copied and distributed. Thus, there exists a need for providing protection to owners of content and providing a subscriber with a digital video recorder (DVR).